Page:A New England Tale.djvu/162

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A NEW-ENGLAND TALE.
151

gently on Mary's. She raised her eyes for the first time, and turned them on Jane with a look of earnest inquiry, and then shaking her head, she said in a low mournful voice—"No, no; we cannot be parted; you mean to take her to heaven, and you say I am guilty, and must not go. They told me you were coming—you need not hide your wings—I know you—there is none but an Angel would look upon me with such pity."

"Oh!" exclaimed Jane in an agony, "can nothing be done for her? at least let us take away this dead child, it is growing cold in her arms." She attempted to take the child, and Mary relaxed her hold; but as she did so, she uttered a faint scream—became suddenly pale as 'monumental marble,'—and fell back on the pillow.

"Ah, she is gone!" exclaimed John.

Crazy Bet sprang on her feet, and raised her hand—"Hush!" said she, "I heard a voice saying, 'Her sins are forgiven'—she is one 'come out of great tribulation.'"

There were a few moments of as perfect stillness as if they had all been made dumb and motionless by the stroke of death. Jane was the first to break silence—"Did she," she inquired of the old man, "express any penitence—any hope?"

John shook his head. "Them things did not seem to lay on her mind; and I did not think it worth while to disturb her about them. Ah, Miss, the great thing is how we live, not how we die."

Jane felt the anxiety, so natural, to obtain some